Fireworks erupted over Washington as Former FBI Director James Comey admitted under oath that he leaked his own memo about White House meetings – through a friend – to Washington Post and New York Times reporters. This high-drama revelation came during Comey’s testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Intelligence Committee Thursday.

The controversial memo, originally intended to be private, concerned meetings Comey had with President Donald Trump on subjects ranging from the on-going FBI Russian campaign-influence investigation to the Michael Flynn matter to pledges of loyalty and Hillary Clinton’s email investigation.

Comey believes he was fired a month ago due to  how he was handling the FBI’s Russian investigation into how they may have influenced the USA’s national election last year, a matter now handled by former FRI Director Robert Mueller, who was hired as ‘special council’ overseeing this investigation in the absence of a sitting FBI director.

President Trump’s long-time private attorney Marc Kasowitz — soon after Comey’s testimony ended — appeared live on national TV to dispute Comey. Kasowitz gave a 3-minute statement, but accepted no questions from a room full of reporters. He emphasized that Comey’s testimony showed President Trump was not under investigation personally in the on-going FBI probe into suspected Russian activities, nor did President Trump order Comey to stop his investigation into Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who only served in that capacity for three weeks before he was fired by President Trump for allegedly lying to the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence.

“Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information … appears to be entirely retaliatory,” the president’s lawyer said. “We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether this leak should be investigated along with all the others being investigated.”

Comey testified publicly for two hours and 40 minutes, then again behind closed doors in private with committee members who are sworn to secrecy.

In the public session, Comey said in response to a question that he did indeed leak his detailed notes he kept about his meetings with President Trump because he wanted to see the appointment of a special council to oversee the FBI’s Russian investigation now that he was a private citizen. He also said he kept the notes in order to have documentation in case the president lied about his encounters with Comey.

Committee members asked Comey if he was aware of any tape recordings that may have been made of the Oval Office meetings and he said he did not know if tape recordings exist.

“I hope there are tapes,” Comey said. However, the White House has not commented about the existence of any tape recordings of any conversations held in the Oval Office with President Trump.

Comey said he gave his notes to a friend at Columbia University Law School for distribution to the media.

“Make sure this gets out,” Comey said of his decision to leak his memo instead of handing it out himself. “We were going on vacation. I was worried it’d be like feeding seagulls at the beach if I gave it out personally … I didn’t want the media camped out in my driveway … I asked a Columbia law professor to share my memos about Trump to prompt the appointment of a special council.”

Neither committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) nor any of the committee members asked Comey if he had ever leaked anything else before. That question was not asked as it should have been.

It was asked of Comey why did he keep notes made to himself about meetings with President Trump when he did not keep notes of meetings with former President Obama.

“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said.

After all was said and done with the Comey hearing the White House Press Office released a short statement saying President Trump was “Completely and totally vindicated.”

After Comey’s testimony Sen. Burr stated to reporters, “This is nowhere near the end of our investigation.”

Just before Comey spoke to the intelligence committee former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino commented on FOX News, “There’s no smoking gun here today, that’s not going happen.” After Comey spoke she said “This isn’t going away anytime soon.”

During the public hearing there was not one word mentioned about President Trump’s pick for a new FBI Director — Christopher Wray, a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor that specialized in white-collar crime.  Wray will need U.S. Senate confirmation before he becomes the new FBI director.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones stock market hit another all-time high during Comey’s testimony. America’s business-sector didn’t even flinch over this flap with Comey. There was no new information revealed except that Comey admitted leaking his own memo. These U.S. Senate hearings amount to nothing more than a grandstanding circus of liberal Democrats wanting dirt on President Trump, any crumb of controversy to launch still more attacks upon the Trump presidency and his ‘Agenda For America.’

Is this Comey’s last gasp? Let’s hope so. On Thursday, Comey took his best shot at President Trump and if there’s a ‘smoking gun’ in all of this it’s the gun in Comey’s hand that just shot him in the foot.

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.